Two of A Kind

4 - Xandar

Aite quickly changed her outfit, taking on the uniform of a NOVA Corps soldier. She then changed Loki into Rocket, Thor into Drax, Natasha into Gamora and Clint into Peter Quill. The illusions, while fairly believable, would never fool anyone who truly knew the self-proclaimed Guardians of the Galaxy. They would, however, get them close enough to snatch the Power Stone before anyone on Xandar knew what was happening.

"Why do I have to be the ferret?" Loki grumbled.

"He's a raccoon." Aite corrected, picking him up so they could quickly make their way to the weapons vault. "Try not to talk. Your voices sound nothing like them."

As they approached the vault, several guards, dressed in all black, closed in on them.

Aite's eyes lit up with a bright green glow. "Easy boys. It's just the Guardians, making sure the Power Stone is secure. Nova Prime Irani Rael told you all about their visit yesterday, don't you remember?"

"Yeah," One of them chuckled nervously. "I remember that meeting."

A second stepped forward to open the elaborate box keeping the stone contained.

"Yeah," She laughed, drawing their attention as Loki made the stone float into its new container. "Can you believe the new guy about wet his pants he was so excited to meet them."

Loki closed the storage box and hid away the Power Stone.

"Too bad he stepped away." Another guard laughed. "He'll be kicking himself for weeks."

Loki coughed, signaling the job was done.

"Well, I better get these guys back over to Nova Prime's office. You know how much she likes to be kept waiting."

They turned and quickly made their way back to the ship, Aite giggling like a school girl as soon as the ship closed.

She waved a hand dismissively to change back all but but Loki and herself. "Can we keep him like this? He's so cute."

"I happen to be cute in all my forms." He said, turning himself back.

She huffed "Party Pooper." and flopped down in her seat, her face turning white as she turned forward. "We're going to need that stone, Loki."

He turned to find a large ship approaching the planet. "Is that..." He asked,pulling the stone's container from beneath his robes.

"Yep." She answered, opening the container and grabbing Loki's hand in hers.

He looked down at her, startled.

"Help me." She begged, holding their joined hands over the stone. "We need to cloak ourselves."

"For how long?" He asked as the power surged through them.

"Long enough to get out of here." She answered as the ship and all it's inhabitants turned invisible.

---

"We should have helped those people!" Steve fumed, pacing back and forth.

"We would have failed, and then Thanos would have had no one standing in his way." Aite countered, for once not a glimpse of humor in her voice. "No one he couldn't flick like a fly, anyway." She pouted, dropping her chin into her palm. "Maybe we can bring them back if collect all the stones."

"There's a plan we can work with." Tony clapped his hands together. "Where are the other five?"

"Four," Aite corrected, staring into space. "We have the Power Stone and Dr. Strange has the Time Stone."

"Okay. Where are the other four then?"

"One is inside the tesseract. Thor, you'll have to go get it alone. No way they'll let any group with Loki anywhere near it." Aite turned her attention to Natasha. "The mind stone was in the scepter. We'll have to get Vision to Wakanda to get it removed. They're the only ones with that kind of technology right now. At least the only one that would help us."

Natasha kneeled in front of her. "This wasn't your fault. Don't take on someone else's guilt."

Aite gave her a weak, half smile and turned back to Tony.  "The Collector has the Aether, which can be condensed into the Reality Stone. The only person alive that knows where the Soul Stone is is currently helping the man she won't admit she loves defeat a Cosmic Being who should never have been a father."

"Okay Pointbreak. You go get the big blue box of death. I'll give Vision a call and we'll go visit the Collector. When we're done, we'll all go see your lovesick friend. I'll be great.  Nat can play matchmaker."